Category: Philosophy
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you trick yourself into thinking that it’s true
John Higgs, in his most recent newsletter, begins by mentioning a piece he wrote for The Big Issue proposing that the super-rich be put in prison, and comparing it to the political notion now known as limitarianism (which is pretty much the same idea, just without the prison bit). Typically modest, Higgs discounts any possibility…
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tools to cudgel or flatter
Bit of a callback here to last week’s post: Addressing the vacuity of the words fascism and democracy, [Orwell] wrote “the word fascism has no meaning except insofar as it signifies ‘something not desirable.’” Calling something a democracy is not very different except that “we are praising it.” Fascism is reduced to meaning not good…
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the erasure of a line between intellectual inquiry and public power
From an interview at The Nation with Wendy Brown, ostensibly on the occasion of her new book on nihilism as discussed in Weber’s “vocation” lectures: What does it mean to think with another scholar—including one with whom one may have many differences and disagreements? Thinking with someone, especially a powerful interlocutor like Weber, does not…
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structure [and/of] structurelessness
I am thinking a lot right now about my work: what it is, certainly, but also what it’s for—where it fits not only in the now, but in times to come. Given that my work is focussed on futurity, this meta-level thinking frequently falls out of and/or collapses back into the more day to day…
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maintaining my empire of kicking
Twice in one week for Philosophy Bear? Looks that way, yeah. If I kick Job three times and kick Rob once and then try to recruit Rob into maintaining my kicking scheme because he’s only getting kicked once, I think saying that Rob is privileged is wrong. But more than just wrong, it’s exactly the…